Mornin', folks. Just wanted to give you a little watercooler fodder by posting the contents of the press release issued recently by the Lords of Tennis, regarding their new Clean Team. The only parts I am editing out are the usual, tedious "drop-in-here" quote from a relevant official or functionary. In this case, Larry Scott Etienne, de Villiers and Bill Babcock (the ITF Grand Slam administrator) each got to say something so anodyne that they ought to market it as a sleeping aid. But hey, that's the MO when it comes to press releases. So without further ado:
So there you have it. It's hard to imagine that the various threats posed by on-line gambling can ever be fully eliminated, but having an Integrity Unit that was created and has been supported by all the major constituents (ITF, WTA, ATP, Grand Slams) sends the right signals. Rees and Gunn certainly have outstanding credentials, and I think the Lords acted with much-needed alacrity and common-purpose on this issue.
The other day, in a conversation (if memory serves), someone made the counter-intuitive point that the good thing about having a robust on-line gambling industry is that it helps monitor the respective sports. On-line booking agents, even when they are just bet-matching instead of actually taking action and betting against customers, are also concerned with the reputation of the game, and the "Integrity Unit" (now there's an post-modern concept if there ever was one) most of them have provides a first line of defense against corruption. Actually, it's the booking agents who have alerted the ATP and other constituents to irregularities or suspicious betting patterns. I wonder if that is going to change now - will the review end up calling for tennis to assume the burden of monitoring betting activity?
My own optimism and confidence in the game on this issue surprises me, and at the risk of sounding cavalier I have to say that the reported cases of match-fixing haven't made me think anything less of the integrity of the tours than hearing about a tomato-can fighter taking a dive in Podunk makes me think less of the Sweet Science.
